Five Phenomenal Phenomena from Catchy

Five Phenomenal Phenomena from Catchy

At number one is the release of the iPhone 5. While it was a mad rush to attain one and worldwide sales hit 5 million the most phenomenal fact is that the Guardian reported that this phone could possibly help the US economy…….. It quoted that ‘iPhone sales could add between 0.25 and 0.5 of a percentage point to the US sluggish economic growth rate’ (http://m.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/sep/11/apple-iphone-5-boost-us-economy?cat=business&type=article) – an extraordinary fact when you consider the state of the US economy. Bloggers suggested that this was the best iPhone ever as it sold over a million more than the iPhone 4S in less time.

On the back of this is our number two which was the arrival of Bad Piggies by Rovio. In the first 3 hours of release, this game became the fastest selling number one game in iTunes EVER. The main difference is that the player controls the pigs rather than birds…….. Really? The power of the brand that is Angry birds.

In at number three is Bond. Last week Adele tweeted a photograph of the script to ‘Skyfall’ and ignited the social media world. At 00:07am (get it?) on 5th October the official audio for the song was released, and in a mere 10 hours ‘Skyfall’ had become the first Bond song to go in at Number One. It has broken records as the fastest download ever.

At number 4 is our favorite in the office – Gangnam Style by PSY. The catchy tune (excuse the pun) and questionable dance routine has taken us all by storm. The YouTube hits now stand at 413,290,718 views and rising. Hundreds of parody videos have now been released on the internet. A concert in Seoul saw 80,000 people do the dance routine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUtaDxLXwAE) and a flash mob at a Filipino prison have mastered the mood.

And finally at number 5… Love it or hate it, is the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy. This sequence soared to the top of the charts in 2012. Everywhere you looked women were reading it. Written by a housewife from London, the trilogy sold more than 5.3 million copies, both paperback and e-book, in less than a year. It even overtook Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. This was an amazing social media coo. Celebrities tweeted photographs of their copies and the world went ‘mummy porn’ crazy, causing purchases and downloads to rocket.

A thought? What lies at the bottom of this? Social media and the power of it, brand power and celebrity endorsement?